Exhausting, but fun.

by PSIP

July 14, 2008 - Introducing this week's PSIP teams: Arkansas, Iowa, and Pennsylvania. We got in late last night and we're extremely tired, but this is fun! There's so much information going around that if you tried to absorb it all your head would explode! You also get to explore another city, and, let me tell you, Tucson has some beautiful architecture especially the churches.

Our time at the Science Operations Center is a very interesting experience. You look around the facility and it looks a lot like every other office building or school or work site. There are cubicles and there are long hallways with white paint on the walls and white tiles on the ceiling and fluorescent lights up above. but then you see a picture of a scoop moving around some soil or something so mundane that it would be boring in most situations and it hits you: That picture is from Mars! The amount of work and wonder that went into obtaining that picture is mind-boggling. It's astounding that such an amazing feat of technology can take place in an everyday office building. We're loving every minute of it! All the work that has been done by the teams finally paid off the moment we stepped foot into the SOC. To see the scientists that we all have been working with for the past year is amazing. We have gained additional parts of our research projects, and are excited to be working and presenting at the end of the week. This experience is awesome, and we are looking forward to more work and meetings, and hopefully more sleep!